If new USC coach Kevin O’Neill can run the basketball program as smoothly as his first news conference, he might endear himself to long-suffering Trojans fans still recovering from the departure of Tim Floyd.

O’Neill quickly disarmed the media by offering his cell phone number, then gave the fans a boost by claiming USC still could make next season’s NCAA Tournament despite massive player defections.

It might be easy to talk, but O’Neill’s performance Monday at Heritage Hall allayed fears over some of the colorful stories in his past.

“It would be my expectation, when we hit the practice floor, we want nothing short of the NCAA Tournament,” O’Neill said.

“We’re not in a rebuilding situation,” O’Neill said. “We have good players.”

O’Neill even said he mellowed from his previous days at Marquette, Tennessee and Northwestern.

“Contrary to popular demand, I’m not Darth Vader,” O’Neill said. “I was a head coach when I was 30, I was prone to be wild. I’m a different coach than I was the first time. Over 20 years, you do change.

“You can’t coach in the NBA if you don’t get along with the players. Everybody gets a tag at some point. I’ve been at multitude of players’ weddings.”

There still are skeptics over how much O’Neill mellowed.

“It’s hard to mellow,” ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla said. “Things that drive you crazy as a coach at 30, drive you crazy as a coach at 50. Kevin’s like a venti Starbucks coffee and USC needed a jolt.”

O’Neill, 52, signed a five-year contract despite some thought a new coach would demand a long contract because of the looming NCAA investigation into former guard O.J. Mayo. But O’Neill also knew this probably was his last chance to get a head coaching job at a large university.

“I really didn’t care what had happened,” O’Neill said. “I was taking the job no matter what. I wanted the job because it’s USC.”

USC athletic director Mike Garrett said the school is waiting for answers from the NCAA.

“We’re in limbo, we don’t know (when it will end),” he said. “We want to get it over with. We can only go as fast as they can.”

Garrett, asked if he thought the NCAA believed there was a lack of institutional control, said, “I don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to find out from the NCAA.”

Garrett also said Floyd was not fired.

“He was not forced out. It was a surprise he resigned,” Garrett said.

But this was O’Neill’s day. He even claimed he didn’t mind giving back the Arizona job to Lute Olson two years ago after a one-year stint.

“I ended up in a better job (at USC),” O’Neill said.

O’Neill also didn’t care that he was the fourth choice for the job behind Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon, former New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy and UNLV coach Lon Kruger. All three turned USC down, however, and O’Neill beat out former Sacramento Kings coach Reggie Theus for the job.

“I wasn’t (my wife’s) first choice either,” O’Neill joked.

That was confirmed by O’Neill’s wife Roberta, 32, a Canadian citizen who met O’Neill when she worked at a Toronto restaurant.

“I thought he was nondescript,” Roberta O’Neill said. “He’s really a charming guy if you sit down and talk to him.”

She sent O’Neill a bottle of wine as an apology after the restaurant did not have several entrees he ordered and that struck up a relationship.

The contrast between O’Neill and Floyd will be noticeable to anyone connected to the basketball program. O’Neill will show up in the office as early as 5 a.m. while Floyd preferred to come in around lunchtime. O’Neill also is expected to be more rules-oriented and a disciplinarian.

He already told Floyd’s assistants (Phil Johnson, Gib Arnold, Bob Cantu) they can return next season. And he’s so eager to meet his players, he will fly to Belgrade, Serbia, today to meet with USC forward Nikola Vucevic.

“For what USC was looking for, which is not a (North Carolina coach) Roy Williams, they got a guy that fits what they needed,” Fraschilla said. “The perception is even without the NCAA investigation, there is not that much interest in basketball there in relation to USC football and Pac-10 basketball at other schools.”

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